ROSSI, JOHN BERNARD DE, an. eminent Orien talist, and one of the most distinguished Hebraists, was born at Castel-Nuovo in Piedmont, October 25, 1742. Having manifested a great passion for learning from his very youth, and being desirous to become an ecclesiastic, he resorted to the Uni versity of Turin (1763), where his extraordinary progress in Hebrew secured for him a doctor's degree in 1766, whilst his indefatigable industry in the acquisition of the cognate as well as modern languages, was rewarded by a place in the Royal Library at Turin in 1769. His fame as an Orien talist was now established, and when the Duke of Parma founded the university at his capital, he invited the Abbe de Rossi to occupy the chair of Oriental Languages, which office he held for forty years. It was during the long years of his profes sional career that he amassed his extraordinary collection of Hebrew MSS., established the famous printing-office, and issued those numerous works on Biblical and Hebrew literature which have im mortalised his name. His works on Biblical criti cism and Hebrew literature are as follows—(1.) De pracipuis caussis et momentis neglecta a non meals hebr. litt. dist-Wince, Turin 1769, Tiibin gen 1782 ; (2.) Della lengsm propria, di Cristo e degli ebrei nazionali del tempo del Maccabai, Parma 1772 ; (3.) Della vana aspettazione degli ebrei del loro Messia, Parma 1773 ; (4.) De Hebraica 7)/po graphice origine ac primiliis commentatio, Parma 1776, Erlangen 1778 ; (5.) Annali ebreo-tipografici di Sabbioneta, Parma 178o ; (6.) De Typographia hebr.—Ferrar. Comment. hirtoricus, Parma 178o ; (7.) Apparatus hebrao-biblicus sive MSS. editique codices sacri textus, Parma 1782 ; (8.) De ignotis nonnullis antiquissimis hebr. textus Editionibus ac critico earum usu. Accedit de editionibus hebrao biblicis appendix h4ctorico-critica nuperrimam Bibliothecam Sacram Le-Longio-Maschianam, Er langen 1783 ; (9.) Specimen variorum lectionum sacri textus et Chez/claim Estheris additamenta cum latina versione ae was, Rome 1782 ; (to.) Varix Lectiones veterts' testamenti, 4 vols. 4to, Parma 1784 '788. —De Rossi undertook this work, so im portant to the criticism of the O. T. text, on account of the omissions and imperfections he perceived in the similar production of Kennicott. With the numerous MSS. at Rome and the various cities of Italy, and his own matchless library, and with his great industry and learning, he was enabled to embody in these volumes not only Kennicott's col lection verified, but the results of the collation of 731 MSS. and additional MSS., 300 editions, the
ancient versions, as well as of the Rabbinic and Massoretic writings. Prefixed to these volumes are elabomte prolegomena, in which he gives an ac count of the work, as well as of the MSS. and printed editions he used, and lays down ninety-three critical canons ; (n.) Schol. crit. in V. T. ?Abr. S. supplementa ad varias sacri textus lectt., Parrna 1798—in this supplement to the preceding work De Rossi gives extracts from new sources ; (12.) Annaies hebrceo-typograph., sec. xv.-xvi., Parma 1795 ; (t3.) Bibliotheca antichristiana, Parma 180o ; 04.) Diztionario storico degli autori ebrei e delle loro opere, 2 vols., Parma 18o2. This biographical and bibliographical dictionary, which is extremely useful to Biblical literature, has been translated into German by Dr. Hamberger, Leip zig 1839. A most elaborate review of this work, with important additions to it, was published by Geiger in his Wissettschaftliche Zeitschrifi, vol. iv., Stuttgart 1839, p. 419-448 ; (15.) Codices hebraici Bibliatheca 7. B. de Rossi a'escripti et cum notis historicis illustrati, 3 vols., Parma 1803 ; (16.) .Lexicon hebraicunt selectum giro ex antiquo et in alito R. Parchonis Lexico novas ac diverscts rario rum ac difficilionem vocum significationes sistit, Parma '8(25 ; (17.) Annali ebreo-tipografici di Cre mona, Parma 1808 ; (t8.) Compendia critica sacra, Ibid. 1811 ; (t9.) Libri stampati di Lett. sacre arnica ed orientale della sua Bibliot., Ibid. 1312 ; (20.) Introduzione della Sacra Scrittura, Ibid. 1817 ; and (21.) Sinopsi della ermenezzfica sacra, Ibid. 1819 ; also translations into Italian of the Psalms (Parma 18o8), and of Lamen tations (Ibid. 1813). After refusing tempting offers for his library from the German emperor, the king of Spain, Pope Pius VI., and the duke of Wurtemberg, he parted with it to the archduchess Maria-Louise for too,000 francs in 1816. He retired from his laborious office in 1821, when he was decorated with the order of a knight of St. Constantine,.and died at Parma 1831, in the eighty-ninth year of his age. Comp. Stein schneider, Catalogus Libr. Hebr. in Bibliotheca Bodleiana, col. 2151-2153; Bibliotheca 7u daica, iii. 174, 175 ; Davidson, Biblical Criticism, p. 155, etc., Edinburgh 1854 ; Biographic Uni verselle, new ed., vol. xxxvi. p. 521, etc.—C. D. G.